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Blended-care CounsellingSTEPS@SCHOOLNCT06390384

Prevention Programme for Improvement of Well-being and Level of Participation in Adolescents With Enhanced Psychiatric Burden in the School Environment.

A study testing blinded-care counselling, App STEPS and digital and mental literacy training in people with Blended-care Counselling and Digital and Mental Literacy Training, run by RWTH Aachen University at 1 site in Germany.

Not yet recruiting

Opening soon. The study is approved but enrolment has not started yet. Sites may already take enquiries.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

The objectives of this two-arm phase-IIa randomized, controlled study are: to prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (blinded care approach) and a training of digital and mental health literacy is superior to a teacher-guided training of digital… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 10 to 14 years
What is being tested?
blinded-care counselling, App STEPS and digital and mental literacy training
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
100 participants
Where
1 siteGermany
Study dates
1 Aug 2026to 31 Dec 2028
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 10 to 14 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child

Who may be able to join

  • Children and adolescents of both genders (w : m = 1 : 1) aged from 10 to 14 years
  • Psychiatric symptoms characterized using SDQ-25 with the cutoff > 17
  • Regular school attendence

Who cannot join

  • IQ <80, ongoing psychiatric or psychotherapeutic treatment with regular appointments (at least once a month).

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

Michael Siniatchkin, Prof. Dr. contact

+49 241 80-89362

msiniatchkin@akaachen.de

Anna Sotnikova, Dr. contact

Germany1 site
  • Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, RWTH Aachen University

    Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, 52074

    Michael Siniatchkin, Prof. Dr.

    Anna Sotnikova, Dr.

Other trials in Germany

About this study

The objectives of this two-arm phase-IIa randomized, controlled study are:

  • to prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (blinded care approach) and a training of digital and mental health literacy is superior to a teacher-guided training of digital and mental health literacy only (treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents.
  • to improve the well-being and level of participation in adolescents at risk for psychiatric disorders.
  • to reduce the expression of psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with enhanced psychiatric burden.
  • to test whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support is well accepted by students, their parents, and teachers.
  • to identify individual factors predicting the improvement of well-being and level of participation in adolescents as well as the acceptance of the prevention program in all subjects involved (students, parents, teachers, psychologists).
  • to investigate whether the clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support causes reduction of primary and secondary costs in the psychosocial support system and represents an economic advantage.
Read the detailed description

The objectives of this two-arm phase-IIa randomized, controlled study are:

  • to prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (blinded care approach) and a training of digital and mental health literacy is superior to a teacher-guided training of digital and mental health literacy only (treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents.
  • to improve the well-being and level of participation in adolescents at risk for psychiatric disorders.
  • to reduce the expression of psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with enhanced psychiatric burden.
  • to test whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support is well accepted by students, their parents, and teachers.
  • to identify individual factors predicting the improvement of well-being and level of participation in adolescents as well as the acceptance of the prevention program in all subjects involved (students, parents, teachers, psychologists).
  • to investigate whether the clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support causes reduction of primary and secondary costs in the psychosocial support system and represents an economic advantage.

The STEPS@SCHOOL clinical study is a two-arm parallel group phase-IIa randomized, non-blinded, controlled study with four measurement points (T1: confirming the risk status/checking inclusion criteria/informed consent; T2: baseline assessment and randomization prior to start of intervention; T3: post intervention assessment; T4: three months follow-up). The study will prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (first arm) is superior to a teacher-guided digital preventive platform with stand-alone digital applications (second arm, described as treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents. To prove this objective, a comparison between two groups (treatment of approval vs. treatment as usual) is necessary.

The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 1) digital and mental literacy training for children, parents and teachers in the school; 2) weekly counselling over 6 weeks via videoconference for adolescents and their parents; 3) blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.

Control condition (Treatment as Usual) includes the implementation of the digital and mental literacy training, however, no weekly counselling by the team of the clinic and no blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.

Being tested
blinded-care counselling, App STEPS, digital and mental literacy training
Keywords
eMental health, digital health, blended care treatment, students at risk in schools, psychiatric disorders, adolescents
Medical subject headings
Mental Disorders

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • blinded-care counsellingOther

    The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 2) weekly counselling over 6 weeks via videoconference for adolescents and their parents.

    The counselling will be provided by experienced psychologists as employers of the Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, RWTH Aachen University, the counselling will be supervised by the leading psychologist of the clinic. The counselling will include psychoeducative elements about psychological and psychosocial problems, behavioral interventions from cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychological techniques for better coping with stress, different therapeutic tasks such as fear exposure, activation exercises e.c. The students will be instructed to use the mobile treatment system STEPS in order to continue therapy at home.

  • App STEPSOther

    The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 3) blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.

    This is transdiagnostic digital treatment system which consists of a students front-end as an App and a therapist front-end as an online platform. The App and the platform are connected to each other. In such a way, an effective data transter (for example, symptom evaluation by the student and tasks and requests by the therapist), direct communication between a student and a therapist, as well as registration of emergency situation, are possible.

  • digital and mental literacy trainingOther

    The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®.

    The intervention will include: 1) digital and mental literacy training for children, parents and teachers in the school.

    This training program (4 weeks, 8 session a 2 lesson units, 2 sessions a week) includes information about rules and functions by using mobile applications, safety aspects of personal data, risks associated with data sharing, sexing and cybergrooming, managing social media, handling with fake news, influence of social media on mental health, forms of digital violence and strategies to cope with them.

Study groups in NCT06390384
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Intervention groupOtherblinded-care counselling + App STEPS + digital and mental literacy training
Receives: Other: blinded-care counselling; Other: App STEPS; Other: digital and mental literacy training
TAU group (Treatment as Usual)No interventiondigital and mental literacy training

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Student's well-being and level of participation

    Student's well-being and level of participation measured by KIDSCREEN-27.

    Measured: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Reduction of psychiatric burden

    Reduction of psychiatric burden as measured by SDQ-25, children/parent/teacher ) as well as SYMPTOM MONITORING as a daily individual symptom estimation on the likert scale in the Appversions.

    Measured: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)

  2. Reduction of children's global impairment

    Reduction of children's global impairment will be assessed by the the German version of the Chil-dren Global Assessment Scale.

    Measured: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)

  3. Feasibility measures

    Feasibility measures: number of students completed the programme, number of counselling ses-sions a student/parent, number of days/hours with STEPS support e.c..

    Measured: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted30 Apr 2024
  2. Study start1 Aug 2026 (estimated)
  3. Primary completion30 Jun 2028 (estimated)
  4. Study completion31 Dec 2028 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Model description
The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 1) digital and mental literacy training for children, parents and teachers in the school; 2) weekly counselling over 6 weeks via videoconference for adolescents and their parents; 3) blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®. Control condition (Treatment as Usual) includes the implementation of the digital and mental literacy training, however, no weekly counselling by the team of the clinic and no blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
100 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT06390384
Sponsor's protocol ID
STEPS@SCHOOL
Acronym
STEPS@SCHOOL
Status last verified
Apr 2024
First submitted
11 Apr 2024
Last updated
30 Apr 2024
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • Dallinger VC, Krishnamoorthy G, du Plessis C, Pillai-Sasidharan A, Ayres A, Waters L, Groom Y, Alston O, Anderson L, Burton L. Utilisation of Digital Applications for Personal Recovery Amongst Youth with Mental Health Concerns. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 14;19(24):16818. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416818.

    PubMed 36554700
  • Damian AJ, Gallo JJ, Mendelson T. Barriers and facilitators for access to mental health services by traumatized youth. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2018 Jan;85:273-278. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.01.003. Epub 2018 Jan 7.

    PubMed 29795708
  • Grist R, Porter J, Stallard P. Mental Health Mobile Apps for Preadolescents and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res. 2017 May 25;19(5):e176. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7332.

    PubMed 28546138
  • Heflinger CA, Hinshaw SP. Stigma in child and adolescent mental health services research: understanding professional and institutional stigmatization of youth with mental health problems and their families. Adm Policy Ment Health. 2010 Mar;37(1-2):61-70. doi: 10.1007/s10488-010-0294-z.

    PubMed 20232133
  • Iskra W, Deane FP, Wahlin T, Davis EL. Parental perceptions of barriers to mental health services for young people. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2018 Apr;12(2):125-134. doi: 10.1111/eip.12281. Epub 2015 Oct 20.

    PubMed 26487568
  • Punukollu M, Marques M. Use of mobile apps and technologies in child and adolescent mental health: a systematic review. Evid Based Ment Health. 2019 Nov;22(4):161-166. doi: 10.1136/ebmental-2019-300093. Epub 2019 Jul 29.

    PubMed 31358537

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing blinded-care counselling, App STEPS and digital and mental literacy training in people with Blended-care Counselling and Digital and Mental Literacy Training, run by RWTH Aachen University at 1 site in Germany.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: opening soon, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 Apr 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Germany. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Michael Siniatchkin, Prof. Dr. (+49 241 80-89362, msiniatchkin@akaachen.de), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Student's well-being and level of participation (time frame: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06390384, which also lists 6 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 Apr 2024.

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